Three for Hunt at Monmore on Thursday night

Hunt treble at Monmore

There were nine opens at Monmore on Thursday night where Nathan Hunt was the man to beat, picking up three of them. Anglesey Milo was an impressive winner of a puppy contest, pinging out on the inside to win a race where kennelmate Gordon Bennett fluffed the start. The winner was behind his kennelmate last week when the breaks were reversed.

Bretons Girl was a decent winner of a sprint contest, digging deep to pick up early leader Droopys Version. She took advantage when a gap opened up on the inside when the leader moved off, the pair pulling a long way clear of the third as they kicked away up the straight.

The final race of the night saw the Hunt treble brought up via Cascabel. He was red-hot in the market, sent off at 4/9, picking up the lead at the end of the back straight in another race where there were some big margins opened up behind.

Kim Billingham-Hine picked up a pair of winners including a smart sprinting success from Newinn Bachelor. His 15.22 was the third quickest time of the year over 264m, his seventh win from his last 15 starts. A consistent runner, he has only finished out of the first three once in that time.

While Newinn Bachelor was expected by punters, the win of Bandit Paddy was less anticipated by the market, winning at 8/1. A regular A2 winner over this trip, his only prior open race win came when he was stepped up to six bends. He showed why he has run over six as he roared home late in the day.

The quickest 480m winner of the day was Mark Wallis's Armagh Daithi. He got involved in a great battle with Kevin Hutton's Start The Engine to the three-quarters mark before proving the stronger coming home. This is his favourite track so it was not a surprise to see him not given a Derby entry. He can keep mopping up these contests to his heart's content.

Hutton picked up a winner with Signet Nayla, though it was not the runner that the market expected with her kennelmate Droopys Doris sent off as the odds-on favourite. Four of the six in the bitches contest produced sub 4.40 splits in a race where the winner ran the best second bend to get herself to the front.

There were two 630m contests on the card, the quicker of which went to Esther Driver's Skyfall Mini. She had checked halfway down the back on her six-bend debut last week but had learnt from that experience to score at the second time of asking. 

Alan Jenkins took the other staying race with Swift Youngster who had turned last before picking his way through the field. He picked up an A2 last time out, clearly on good terms with himself at present.